Titanic tale hits home

It holds miniature models of the legendary ship, a pile of Titanic puzzles stacked three feet high, "Titanic" movie memorabilia and more posters and paintings than will fit on his wall.
But Tompkins, of Brookfield, is not just a man with an unusual hobby. For him, "Titanic" means more than a Leonardo DiCapriocq melodrama backed by a syrupy Celine Dioncq song. The story of the massive ocean liner that sank April 15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg has captivated him since he was a child.
The same can be said for
Amy Nackid
. For the Bethel woman, the Titanic is family history.
She was married to the late

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Anthony Nackid
. His parents - Said and Mary - came to America from Lebanon on the Titanic with their only child, named Mary, just like her mom.
While they survived the ship's sinking, established a life in Waterbury and went on to have six more children, the couple never talked about the disaster.--photo1L--
"It was too traumatic," said Amy Nackid. When her mother in-law's three sons went into military service, "she said she didn't mind them going into the service, as long as it wasn't the Navy."
On Sunday, their ties to the Titantic brought both Tompkins and Amy Nackid to the Calvary Cemetery in Waterbury. There, they joined some other members of Nackid's extended family at a small ceremony that marked the final resting place of 1-year-old

Mary Nackid
, a toddler who survived the Titanic disaster only to die a few months later.
None of it would have happened without Tompkins, who became interested in the Titanic when he was growing up in West Hartford.
"It's an enduring story. It's engineering and the ego of man against God, if you will," Tompkins, 60 and a semi-retired engineer, said of the disaster.
His childhood interest in the Titanic waned as he grew older, got a job with IBM and married his wife, Susan. The couple - who have lived in Brookfield for 33 years - recently became grandparents. Bruce Tompkins' interest in the ship was renewed in 1997, when the movie "Titanic" hit theaters and became the biggest money-making film ever.
Tompkins, who already had several books on the disaster, began collecting items in earnest, mostly from eBay, the online auction house. "I call it eBuy," Tompkins said.
He also joined three organizations - The Titanic Historical Society, the

Titanic International Society
, and the British Titanic Society. The groups have annual get-togethers and conventions for Titanic enthusiasts. At these functions, he met other armchair Titanic experts.
Then Tompkins took his interest in the famous ship a step further. Over the years while reading books and cruising Titanic-related Internet sites, he kept coming across the Nackid family name.
The fact the Nackids were coming to Connecticut on the Titanic piqued his interest. He began to delve deeper into who they were, even charting the Nackid family tree.
He learned that Mary, the baby, was the first Titanic survivor to die. He went to the funeral home where she was laid to rest, searching for records.
Tompkins learned baby Mary was buried in a pauper's grave because the family was brand new to the country and penniless.
After about two years of searching, Tompkins tracked down the Nackid family in Bethel. His interest immediately attracted Amy, who wanted to know more about her family's lost history.
She told him what she knew about the night the ship sank. Her information was gained through third-party sources, because her in-laws didn't like talking about it.
The night of the disaster,
Said Nackid
, the father, heard a loud noise. The massive ship had just struck an iceberg. "He got his family dressed and took them up to the lifeboat deck," Tompkins said.
The family managed to get into a lifeboat, where they rubbed shoulders with
J. Bruce Ismay
, a big-wig from the company that owned the Titanic.--photo2R--
Tompkins said the Nackids survived the disaster unscathed and made their way to Waterbury, where Said found work as a laborer.
Mary, the baby, came down with meningitis and died July 30, 1912 - just three months after Titanic sank. "Nobody really knew anything about her because she died before everyone else," Tompkins said.
Tompkins immediately decided that the child's resting place, and her connection to history, deserved to be marked.
With help from the Nackid family and the Titanic International Society, Tompkins purchased a small, $600 grave marker.
The 300-member Titanic International Society held a convention over the weekend in Groton. At the conclusion of the event, a few members from the group went to the cemetery in Waterbury.
A priest from a
Waterbury Catholic church
said a few words. A small stone reading "Mary Nackid, 1910-1912, infant daughter of Said and Mary Nackid, Titanic Survivors," was unveiled.
"It was beautiful, and for me, it was closure," Amy Nackid said.
Tompkins, a soft-talking straight shooter, said his motivation was simple.
"Virtually all Titanic survivors had markers," he said. "She is probably one of a very few who didn't. I just thought it was the right thing to do."